A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome
Many patients that were infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience cognitive and affective symptoms weeks and months after their acute COVID-19 disease, even when acute symptoms were mild to moderate. For these patients, purely neurological explanations are struggling to explain the development and mainten...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Europe's Journal of Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/10097 |
| _version_ | 1797970248292368384 |
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| author | Daniel Scharfenberg Ann-Katrin Schild Clemens Warnke Franziska Maier |
| author_facet | Daniel Scharfenberg Ann-Katrin Schild Clemens Warnke Franziska Maier |
| author_sort | Daniel Scharfenberg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many patients that were infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience cognitive and affective symptoms weeks and months after their acute COVID-19 disease, even when acute symptoms were mild to moderate. For these patients, purely neurological explanations are struggling to explain the development and maintenance of the great variety of neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms occurring after COVID-19. We provide a psychological perspective based on the network theory of mental disorders as an added explanation that does not displace neurological mechanism but rather complements them. We suggest viewing the SARS-CoV-2 infection as a trigger that first activates nodes in a causally connected network of neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms. In the following, activation will spread throughout the network that will get in a self-sustaining stable and dysfunctional state manifesting in ongoing symptoms known as post-COVID-19 syndrome. The network perspective allows to generalize explanations for persistent neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms to patients that experienced mild or moderate acute courses of COVID-19, but also to similar phenomena following other viral infections. In addition, it could explain why some symptoms did not occur during acute COVID-19, but develop weeks or months after it. This network perspective shifts the focus from viewing persistent symptoms as a continuation of COVID-19 to acknowledging it as a complex syndrome that indeed originates from the disease but fully unfolds after it (post-COVID). To test the presented network perspective, we will need extensive cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data on cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID patients. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:14:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7f1691fc6b2943479bda479fed9f972d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1841-0413 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:14:59Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Europe's Journal of Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7f1691fc6b2943479bda479fed9f972d2023-01-02T10:41:48ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyEurope's Journal of Psychology1841-04132022-11-0118435035610.5964/ejop.10097ejop.10097A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID SyndromeDaniel Scharfenberg0Ann-Katrin Schild1Clemens Warnke2Franziska Maier3Medical Psychology | Neuropsychology & Gender Studies, Center for Neuropsychological Diagnostic and Intervention (CeNDI), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, GermanyMany patients that were infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience cognitive and affective symptoms weeks and months after their acute COVID-19 disease, even when acute symptoms were mild to moderate. For these patients, purely neurological explanations are struggling to explain the development and maintenance of the great variety of neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms occurring after COVID-19. We provide a psychological perspective based on the network theory of mental disorders as an added explanation that does not displace neurological mechanism but rather complements them. We suggest viewing the SARS-CoV-2 infection as a trigger that first activates nodes in a causally connected network of neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms. In the following, activation will spread throughout the network that will get in a self-sustaining stable and dysfunctional state manifesting in ongoing symptoms known as post-COVID-19 syndrome. The network perspective allows to generalize explanations for persistent neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms to patients that experienced mild or moderate acute courses of COVID-19, but also to similar phenomena following other viral infections. In addition, it could explain why some symptoms did not occur during acute COVID-19, but develop weeks or months after it. This network perspective shifts the focus from viewing persistent symptoms as a continuation of COVID-19 to acknowledging it as a complex syndrome that indeed originates from the disease but fully unfolds after it (post-COVID). To test the presented network perspective, we will need extensive cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data on cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID patients.https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/10097long covidnetwork modelbrain fogcognitive deficitssars-cov-2fatiguepost-vac syndrome |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Scharfenberg Ann-Katrin Schild Clemens Warnke Franziska Maier A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome Europe's Journal of Psychology long covid network model brain fog cognitive deficits sars-cov-2 fatigue post-vac syndrome |
| title | A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome |
| title_full | A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome |
| title_fullStr | A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome |
| title_short | A Network Perspective on Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Symptoms of the Post-COVID Syndrome |
| title_sort | network perspective on neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms of the post covid syndrome |
| topic | long covid network model brain fog cognitive deficits sars-cov-2 fatigue post-vac syndrome |
| url | https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/10097 |
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